The impact felt by today’s announcement is arguably the biggest punch in the gut that the open-wheel world has felt since July 21, 1990 — the night that Rich Vogler was killed while leading the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial at Salem Speedway.
It was another case where a supremely-talented competitor, highly-respected friend and all-around good human being was taken from the racing family before he had a chance to finish writing the racing chapter of his life’s story.
In fact, the parallels between the two are almost stunning, in a way. While the Belleville Nationals continued on following Saturday’s tragic lap 14 crash and Chad Boat ultimately scored the race victory, Bryan’s last lap on earth was spent just like Rich’s was … out in front and silently signaling to the rest of the field, “Catch me if you can.”
Unfortunately, those of us who remain here are stuck in neutral, unable to catch Bryan now as he’s gone to a plane where we can only hope to follow one day. His time came on Saturday night, and I can promise you, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
He won’t ever be able to complete that self-set goal of completing 200 features in a single season on his own, but you can bet that BC will ultimately make it to 200.
Why?
Because he’ll be inside the heart of every driver he competed with, every fan he touched, every crew member he worked with and every friend he made along the way — at every track they visit and every race they start, for all the days still to come this season.
He dubbed his quest for 200 race starts “Circular Insanity”. It was a fitting moniker, really, because the first thing I said when he announced what he wanted to do this year was: “That’s insane.”
In an era of racers across the spectrum that World of Outlaws videographer Ross Wece described today as “specialists,” Clauson was none of that. He had no fear. There was no being afraid of jumping in a different car every night, or sometimes several in the same night … there was just BC, his helmet, his steering wheel and a focus that was unrivaled in this modern era of the sport.
Bryan had no fear of the amount of effort it would take to get to 200. He had no fear of other people telling him his goal was impossible. He just went out and kept trying to achieve it anyways, and he was damn well on his way to making it a reality, too.
If there’s a lesson that we can all take away from this day, and from Bryan, it’s what Ross closed his post with:
Don’t let anyone tell you a goal is impossible.
Go chase your own insanity.
Go chase your own 200. Bryan did.
